Thursday, September 20, 2012

If Obama is an Anti Semite

Bill

Then so am I. So are the members of my extended family. So are millions of American Jews who disagree with current Israeli policy. So are the Israelis who see the settlements policy as an illegal land grab and the continued marginalization of the Arabs within the occupied territories as a recipe for doom for the Zionist dream that we share. You can be a Zionist, as I consider myself to be, and you can believe passionately in the essential irreplaceability of Israel as a homeland for the Jews as I do, and also believe that the cynical policies of the Netanyahu administration are ultimately as damaging to that dream as anything Ahmadinejad and his band of lunatic millennialists can dream up.

Surely you, as a libertarian, don't believe that blind acquiescence to whatever Bibi and his right wing coalition dream up is in America's best interest. Never mind Israel's best interest.

I am not fond of the Arabs. We are not talking about nice people here. Arafat was a pathetic liar who, as the saying goes, never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and the one that he missed with Bill Clinton in late 2000 was as good a deal as the Palestinians were ever going to get. But I don't have to like them to believe it is essential to find a way to live beside them that ensures the survival of Israel as a Jewish state.

When (not if), the Israelis make their move against the Persians Obama will be right there behind them. That's why 70% of American Jews will vote for him, just as they did in 2008.